Listen Live: Supreme Court hears cases challenging affirmative action

Washington — As the Supreme Court convenes Monday to hear arguments in a pair of cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, four of the nine justices are confronting an issue they weighed just six years ago.

But in the years since the high court last considered the legality of universities considering race as a factor in their admissions programs — in a dispute involving the University of Texas at Austin (Justice Elena Kagan recused herself) — the composition of the court has changed markedly, with the addition of three justices appointed by former President Donald Trump. 

That rightward march has raised the stakes significantly for the future of affirmative action, with legal experts expecting the Supreme Court's strengthened six-member conservative majority to find race-conscious admissions policies to be outside constitutional bounds.